Beach reads, train reads, plane reads—they’re all here.

One of the underrated things about being an adult is that there’s no such thing as required summer reading—no Beowulf, no The Catcher in the Rye, and no Great Gatsby to read and be ready to discuss in September. You can read whatever you want, it’s crazy! Since we all love food here, we combed through this year’s latest book releases and found the non-cookbook but still food-focused reading material for you to dive into on the beach, by the lake, or wherever these long days and warm weather bring you. Whether you skew towards nonfiction deep dives, historical fiction, novels, or memoirs, here are eight food books to read this summer.

History buffs and Francophiles get to nerd out in Paris à Table by Parisian writer/theater critic Eugène Briffault. The book was published in 1846 and re-released for the first time in English this year. Briffault chronicles 19th century French society through the lens of culinary culture, and translator J. Weintraub does an excellent job of relaying Briffault’s illustrative descriptions for the 21st century reader. Briffault has (very funny) strong opinions about how his countrymen dine, especially those who take part in the “impudent custom” of déjeuner dînatoire, now known as brunch. Even in the 1800s, brunch was dismissed as an excuse for men to start drinking champagne before noon (proper women did not brunch). He would have loved BrunchCon.

In the culinary world, Edna Lewis, born in rural Virginia in 1916, is widely considered to be on the same playing field as Julia Child, but her life and cookbooks, including The Taste of Country Cooking and In Pursuit of Flavor, have never received the same level of publicity. Sara B. Franklin is changing that with her sharply edited collection of essays written by chefs, food writers, and scholars about the southern cook, who died in 2006 at the age of 89. (Read an excerpt by chef Mashama Bailey here.)

Journalist Mark Kurlansky is known for popularizing a niche genre of general interest historical non-fiction. (See: Cod, Salt, and Oysters). From the the first page of this book, you’ll be fascinated by how much milk, and its relatives like cheese, whey, and ice cream, have infiltrated our lives over thousands of years. If you’ve ever found yourself in a debate about what milk is the best milk—goat, cow, human?!—this book will equip you with all the random tidbits to strengthen your rebuttal.

Alice Waters’ long-awaited memoir, Coming to My Senses, was first published in September 2017 but is now getting a second wind thanks to its May paperback release. Waters chronicles her life up through the opening Chez Panisse, from her early childhood in suburban New Jersey and first year of college at UC Santa Barbara to falling in love with France and finding her restaurant’s home on Berkeley’s Shattuck Avenue. The narrative is complemented by photographs, letters, and recipes, but it’s Waters’ stark confessions that demystify the aura surrounding her.

We’re happy to report that this is a case where you can and should judge a book by its fantastic cover. Lillian Li’s debut novel, about a family-owned Chinese restaurant in the DC suburbs, has an enthralling plot line reminiscent of a prime time drama that you can’t stop watching. The story begins on a busy night of service at the Beijing Duck House in Rockland, Maryland, where all the main characters, in varying capacities, work. Tragedy strikes in the first few chapters, and the rest of the book has a Law & Order-like spin (arson, extra-marital affairs, blackmail, etc) that we couldn’t put down.

Fans of World War II historical fiction have a new title to add to their book club reading list this summer: The Lost Vintage. The novel centers around Kate, a sommelier in San Francisco who comes from a wine-making family in Burgundy. When Kate returns to the family vineyard to help her cousin with the annual grape harvest, she discovers a secret room in the vineyard’s basement, full of French Resistance pamphlets and items belonging to an unknown aunt who grew up in Vichy France. You’ll easily start and finish the entire book in the span of a long weekend.

In the 1990s, Mark Lynas was radical environmental activist who’d break into GMO trial plots and destroy the crops. It turns out he didn’t know as much as his plant-hacking activity suggested, and in 2013, he publicly apologized for his behavior. In his new book, he explains why he got it all wrong—and why genetically modified crops aren’t as evil as many believe them to be. It’s science-heavy, for sure, but like Milk!, the book is full of factoids that’ll make you rethink a highly debated subject, and also what’s really going on with those giant apples that don’t bruise or brown.

Magazine editor Camas Davis moved from New York to Portland for love and a new job, and when neither of those panned out, she went back to school—for butchery. In her memoir Killing It, she writes of her time studying whole animal butchery and charcuterie in southwestern France and her subsequent move back to Portland, where she founded the meat school Portland Meat Collective. Even if you don’t have meat-butchering ambitions (or care for beef all that much), you’ll enjoy going along with Camas on her journey into a totally new world.